Search found 3140 matches

by TallDave
Thu Mar 12, 2015 6:30 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Paging Johann Prins
Replies: 3
Views: 8428

Paging Johann Prins

http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/semiconductors/materials/first-mangenesebased-superconductor-discovered "Scientists had long thought magnetism prevented superconductivity because magnetic fields disrupt Cooper pairs. However, in the past few decades, investigators have discovered several classes...
by TallDave
Tue Feb 10, 2015 8:33 pm
Forum: News
Topic: SpaceX News
Replies: 2324
Views: 1154519

Re: SpaceX News

Looking forward to the controlled landing attempt on the RTFM -- I mean, JRTI.
by TallDave
Thu Jan 29, 2015 9:36 pm
Forum: News
Topic: A Sequel to The Google Talk
Replies: 98
Views: 82888

Re: A Sequel to The Google Talk

Awesome. It even has the spiky ball.
by TallDave
Thu Jan 29, 2015 9:34 pm
Forum: News
Topic: EMC2 Polywell On the Ropes?
Replies: 38
Views: 35563

Re: EMC2 Polywell On the Ropes?

Tom Ligon wrote:Stay tuned. Dr. Park may have some materials available shortly, if you folks behave yourselves.
[bats at the shiny object]
by TallDave
Fri Jan 09, 2015 5:44 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Mach Effect progress
Replies: 2707
Views: 1466171

Re: Mach Effect progress

Hope you're right about getting more data this year, GIThruster. I really hoped 2014 would be the year we saw more replication, a little disappointed on that front. Anyways, I'm sufficiently intrigued by your comments (and his emails to the group) to read Woodward's book (anyways I need some light r...
by TallDave
Tue Nov 18, 2014 6:06 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Aviation Week on the Lockheed Skunkworks CFR
Replies: 186
Views: 171551

Re: Aviation Week on the Lockheed Skunkworks CFR

With mechanical supports for the coils, this idea is dead in the water. You cannot get 'recirculation' that way. All the plasma on the field lines that pass outside those 'internal' rings can ExB or grad-B drift around azimuthally until it collides with the stub and is lost. So you basically turn i...
by TallDave
Wed Oct 08, 2014 7:56 pm
Forum: News
Topic: University of Washington dynomak
Replies: 5
Views: 9916

Re: University of Washington dynomak

As best I can tell, just another tokamak/spheromak variant. I wouldn't expect dramatically different results.

http://meeting.aps.org/Meeting/DPP14/Session/UP8.62

http://plasma.aa.washington.edu/aps2004 ... S_2004.pdf

They do claim to get high beta.
by TallDave
Mon Oct 06, 2014 7:50 pm
Forum: News
Topic: EMC2 website upgrade in progess
Replies: 31
Views: 30797

Re: EMC2 website upgrade in progess

Well, WB-8 was intended to test scaling. It sounds like we learned the wiffleball scales pretty well, but the well depth does not scale quite as well. That sounds like they're seeing more maxwellianization than expected. And apparently they're not even trying to do p-B11. So, presumably the next ste...
by TallDave
Fri Oct 03, 2014 7:49 pm
Forum: News
Topic: EMC2 website upgrade in progess
Replies: 31
Views: 30797

Re: EMC2 website upgrade in progess

EMC2 is upgrading their website. The picture has been taken in November 2010, so maybe it is WB-8? Pretty picture, thanks for sharing! Yep, based on the lack of nubs that appears to be WB-8. If we're lucky they're redesigning to announce WB-9. If we're really, really lucky WB-9 is a 100MW prototype...
by TallDave
Mon Sep 29, 2014 8:23 pm
Forum: News
Topic: New Experimental Polywell Publication
Replies: 14
Views: 14292

Re: New Experimental Polywell Publication

why the geometry mistakes of the early machines would be repeated. Bussard's results are not published. They are nothing more than anecdotes for anyone outside of his company. For all intents and purposes, they never happened. The Sydney group are really the only folks putting out rigorous peer-rev...
by TallDave
Mon Sep 29, 2014 8:16 pm
Forum: News
Topic: EM Drive
Replies: 785
Views: 602037

Re: EM Drive

I would never pretend to speak for Paul, but I can relate to you what his positions have been in the past. Last I heard, he was still maintaining he believed that Sonny's QVF model and Jim's M-E model were opposite sides of the same coin, despite Jim, Sonny and myself keep arguing this cannot be tr...
by TallDave
Sun Jun 08, 2014 1:46 pm
Forum: News
Topic: EMC2 has published a polywell preprint on arXiv
Replies: 145
Views: 158989

Re: EMC2 has published a polywell preprint on arXiv

...the conditions needed to instigate a proper wiffleball are apparently a bit steeper than first modeled, and it is quite helpful to have some data to tell just what it takes. Building a big machine and then trying to sneak up on a wiffleball from the bottom using inadequate equipment is a terribl...
by TallDave
Sat Jun 07, 2014 3:10 pm
Forum: News
Topic: EMC2 has published a polywell preprint on arXiv
Replies: 145
Views: 158989

Re: EMC2 has published a polywell preprint on arXiv

BTW as others have pointed out, this doesn't prove Polywells are a viable path to economic fusion power, it just means they crossed another significant hurdle. It's still hard to know for sure what losses will look like in reactor-sized machines, to say nothing of the electron optics. A demo reactor...
by TallDave
Sat Jun 07, 2014 7:51 am
Forum: News
Topic: EMC2 has published a polywell preprint on arXiv
Replies: 145
Views: 158989

Re: EMC2 has published a polywell preprint on arXiv

Yeesh, 1.6GW net power output for a 1 meter radius? Did I read that right? It's late, must sleep... That's probably optimistic but it's still an encouraging estimate given that they've done some scaling now. That means it should cost around $200M (vs $20B for ITER which is planned to produce 500MW)....
by TallDave
Mon Jun 02, 2014 4:03 am
Forum: News
Topic: 10KW LENR demonstrator (new thread)
Replies: 6351
Views: 2169274

Re: 10KW LENR demonstrator (new thread)

I thought it was interesting that NRL claimed the other day to have a process to produce jet fuel from seawater for $3-$6, for which they were not immediately condemned by all right-thinking people. -- And why should they be, or were you just being facetious? Indeed, Bussard himself made some... op...